| Sniping is the practice of placing a bid in | | | | that sniping is against the rules, so you |
| auction which is about to end. What happens | | | | should log in well before the auction ends, |
| is that a person rushes into an auction at | | | | and then raise your bid to be the highest |
| the last moment, and bids just a little | | | | bid, with plenty of time to spare: You then |
| higher than the previous highest bid - as the | | | | simply need to keep an eye out to make sure |
| clock runs out of time - thus winning the | | | | that nobody else outbids you. The key thing |
| auction. | | | | to remember, if you've been logged in for a |
| | | | while, your activity can hardly be considered |
| Sniping is supposed to be against the rules | | | | sniping, and therefore eBay should not give |
| at eBay , but that doesn't seem to stop many | | | | you any trouble. |
| people doing it. Indeed, in most cases, even | | | | |
| if you report sniping activity, the sniper | | | | The other option that you have is to use |
| will get away with it, and you will have lost | | | | automatic bidders. These come in the form of |
| the item that you wanted to win. Or, to put | | | | bidding software or services that have been |
| it another way, if you want to avoid losing | | | | specifically designed for the purpose of |
| items to snipers, you need to find a way to | | | | snipping. In fact, if you are up against a |
| beat the snipers! | | | | sniper who is using a sniping software or |
| | | | service, then using one yourself is the only |
| The first and most obvious way to beat | | | | realistic hope you have of beating them. |
| snipers, is the safest, but not necessarily | | | | However, while these types of items are |
| easiest: simply keep up with all activity on | | | | relatively easy to find, and while eBay |
| the item that you are bidding in. What you | | | | relatively rarely enforces their anti-sniping |
| need to do is make a note of the date and | | | | rules, the thing to remember is that eBay |
| time that the auction will end, and make sure | | | | does have rules - and violating those rules |
| that you are logged into your computer and | | | | can get you permanently banned from eBay . In |
| watching the auction well before that | | | | other words, however tempting these software |
| specific time. You can then bid higher than | | | | and services might be, if you decide to use |
| the previous high-bid during the last few | | | | them, you need to be aware that you're taking |
| seconds, or simply make sure that nobody | | | | a huge risk. |
| outbids you. Of course, you need to remember | | | | |